How well are we winning the war against AIDS?

The first day of December usually comes in high spirit with Christmas decorations hung and tons of end-of-year activities lined up ahead as well as the joy of a new year coming up, but the day itself reminds us of one of the world's deadliest epidemic; HIV/AIDS,

The disease that became identified and began to spread in the 1970s to 1980s but it's stigma spread even more since it became popular, which is why we will be discussing it and celebrating how far we've come with tackling the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Surely, if you live in a more developed country, HIV stigma might sound very alien to you in 2019 but it's important to know that roughly one out of eight persons living with HIV/AIDS report stigma that goes as far as avoiding body contact with them even from healthcare professionals.

Often times, people who aren't living with the virus are even discriminated against with slurs as a result of their weight class& body size, race, gender or sexuality, thereby maintaining certain stereotypes attached to them. This stigma is also perpetuated by myths that the HIV virus is only transmitted through sex and more importantly between infidels and sex workers which is frowned upon in regressive societies with beliefs that HIV is a punishment to these people.

This is why we'll be explaining the many milestones that have been reached since this deadly disease has been identified;

● Condom use especially amongst teenagers:

About 1.6 million people [in 2018] between the ages of 10 and 19 were living with the HIV virus around the world and although this might not sound alarming enough given the world's population, I am displeased to inform you that only about 17% of teenagers have taken an HIV test in the last year which means many 9f the 1.6 million people aren't even aware that they have this disease, this is why condom use is paramount amongst teenagers having sex.

School-based sex education is encourage and advised as the most effective way to inform teenagers about safe sex as well as distribution of condoms and lubricants to foster commitment to practicing safe sex yet religion and morality makes this exercise unsuccessful in some of the world's most affected regions where even talking about sex seems like a taboo [Sub-Saharan Africa houses 89% of global teenagers recorded to have been infected with the disease].

The second and most outstanding innovation in the fight against HIV/AIDS is the creation of PrEP and PEP by scientists to prevent the spread of the HIV virus before or after exposure.

● PrEP and PEP: PrEP means Pre-exposure prophylaxis and is commonly referred to as ''the blue pill'  is an HIV prevention medium proven to offer 99% protection [after at least 20 days if uninterrupted daily use of the pill even] when you have unprotected sex with an HIV positive partner; because of the 1% possibility of an infection, it is still advised to still use other HIV prevention media especially when you don't use the pill cosistently.

It's prescription name is Truvada.

PEP:- Post Exposure Prophylaxis is an even more jaw-dropping innovation in combating the virus as it does so aggressively within the first 72 hours of exposure. The AZT pill is the only prescribed form of PEP and acts as an antiretroviral [drug used to reduce viral load of HIV patients] on steroids.

Using either of these pills (PrEP or PEP) has side effects when you start taking them but they usually clear out after a few days of using them as the body gets used to the pill, These effects include headache, stomach ache, discomfort and sometimes mild changes in kidney size that corrects itself over time.

This is all to properly explain as we celebrate World Aids Day, that in 2019, it is easier to get malaria 5 times over than to get HIV/AIDS even when you've been exposed to the virus directly.

● Antiretrovirals [ARV] are special drugs created by scientists to significantly reduce the replication of HIV virus in the blood stream and prevent the entry of other HIV associated diseases that can lead to death. 

This birthed the expression "reduce your viral load" used to represent an HIV patient with less of the virus in the blood stream; often times these get as low as undetectable.

At this stage, the risk if transmitting the HIV virus via unprotected sex is also reduced to less than 10%. Hence, it is advised for couples with one HIV positive partner to maintain regular ARV and PrEP use respectively to keep viral loads undetectable and HIV immunity even higher for unprotected sex.

● Mother - child transmission:

Antiretrovirals also helps in preventing transmission of the virus from mother to child during pregnancy and several babies have been safely delivered without an infection.

An important thing to note about the ARV is that there are currently about 6 types used in what is known as combination therapy to prevent cases where the virus is untreatable by any one if the six types used.

For all these reasons, it is evident that the infections of the HIV virus and AIDS syndrome is fast declining with the possibility of a cure getting formulated sooner than we can imagine since the world has seen less and less cases of HIV graduating into AIDS year on year.

As a result, the stigmatization and discrimination of HIV/AIDS patients is a mind construct that must be laid to rest as we celebrate World Aids Day this year.

That's the power of the red ribbon!

Could 'Africa's Amazon', Jumia be just another Nigerian scam.

This is the news that shook the Nigerian ecommerce company's stocks on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, 10th May 2019.

An American online investment newsletter company made this called Citron Research made this claim on Friday when they made a post calling Jumia 'an obvious scam' and the 'worst abuse of the IPO system.

The newsletter which also referred to the 'African Amazon's' company as 'worthless' made a 12 paged post and published it on Friday,

The newsletter stated some true and rather unsettling things about Jumia's operations.

It highlighted Jumia's $1 billion loss which was confirmed by several articles even written here in Nigeria.

 There's also the claim that the company forged some of the documents tendered before it's IPO to the Securities Exchange Commission.

This showed in the comparison between the documents Jumia tendered during an investment proposal meeting in October 2018 and the documents tendered in April 2019 just before the IPO.

There were differences like the claims that Jumia saw a rise in active customers from 2.1 million people in October, 2018 to 2.7 million people in April 2019.

Citron dismisses this claim and says it is a lie.

There was also the claim that the sellers on Jumia had increased from 43,000 to 53,000 during the same period, also marked untrue by Citron.

Another red flag Citron stated was that in their previous statement in October 2018, 41% of orders made were either cancelled, not delivered or returned but in the report this April Jumia stated that 14.4% of their orders were not delivered or returned which means they deliberately left out the 30% that was cancelled to save them from looking like a fraud [the percentage is too high].

All in all the bottom line is Jumia is not being straightforward with their investors and they're bearing the brunt as stock prices have reduced by 18% in just one day and despite Jumia's media team releasing statements debunking such news, the deed seems to have been done and there's no limit as to how much Jumia's equities might lose value.

On the flip-side, Citron as a newsletter company is ran by a popular Short-seller named Andrew Left; now what short sellers like Andrew do is watch out for stocks that are lower in price than their real value due to market perception, buy them and sell when the price rises again.

Now it might be a plot by Andrew to reduce the value of Jumia's stocks so he can purchase them and sell when all of it is clear,

We look forward to watching how this debacle to Africa's foremost E-commerce company pans out as they have continued to react to this news and you can get the PDF file of the report made by Citron Research below.

CLICK HERE

Game of Thrones, Feminism, and Equal Responsibility

So I watched the game of thrones S8Ep2 I couldn't help but notice the feminist messages during the conversation between two strong women, Sansa & Daenerys. Although that was before the big question was asked lol. See let's face it Women need to unite and stop the hate. But another angle I'd like to see it from is, If Sansa were a man and she was giving Daenerys such attitude, it would have been a case of "because she is a woman" but the truth is she doesn't trust Daenerys enough. She could be a tyrant like her father. we need to agree that it's natural for humans to hate on one another for their own reasons and this has nothing to do with the fact that you're a woman or a man.

Also how Brienne of tarth was knighted by Jamie. Brienne has stood out in the entire series, she is brave, strong, loyal, she has fought for good and most importantly she has a good heart. So I see no reason why she can't be a knight. But society and tradition hold her down. We've designed a society of toxic masculinity, and the worst part about it is that it's not just bad for women but for men as well. And That's exactly what philosophical feminism stood for...All people, regardless of gender, should be afforded the same rights, respect & privileges. Not the crap "hate on men agenda" tribal feminism is pushing

According to Mark Manson
"Once a philosophy goes tribal, its beliefs no longer exist to serve some moral principle, but rather they exist to serve the promotion of the group"

A lot of sensitization needs to be done among women, about the issue of equal responsibility. My cousin, Jon Snow once had a conversation with his girlfriend on why he thinks she should go through personal development and how she should read books so she can be a better person. But most of the time when they have that conversation she says he is trying to control her. People control people it's not about men trying to control women or vise visa. If you don't stop being mediocre people will trample on you.

A lot of women aren't ready to give what it takes like Brienne of tarth. As we can see in the entire series of game of thrones the only woman worthy of being a knight is just Brienne and that can be closely liked to our present society. We have very few female surgeons. We never barely see female football coaches coaching male teams but we see a lot of male coaches in women teams.

PEWDIEPIE VS TSERIES - INDIVIDUAL VS CORPORATE - YOUTUBE WAR

image credit - dexerto.com

There is a war going on on youtube and these days everywhere we turn, we see pew pew pew, Yea, most of you would say it's Pewdiepie vs Tseries... But you all know there would be no Tseries buzz without Pewdiepie...come on, he is bigger 😀

We won't talk about how you should unsubscribe from Tseries. That's not cool, we love Pewdiepie, not because of the so-called war going on but just because I find his contents funny and entertaining. But we don't find Tseries' contents interesting enough to subscribe to their channel. But being a pew fan we still find ourselves telling our Nigerian friends to sub to his channel. Deep down we also want him to reach 100 million subscribers first.

But we all seem to be missing something here. Pewdiepie is an individual and Tseries is a company. They are much bigger in terms of manpower and expertise. So we don't think there is anything wrong if we have an individual face and a corporate face on youtube.

Let's stop telling people to unsubscribe from Tseries it's not cool. Let's share positivity and pew pew pew, get him more subs guys. This is our opinion... so deal with it 😀😀😀... I just subscribed my mum to Pewdiepie's 😀 channel!

Politics: A Story, A Game, A War.

In a city that boasts of being the economic hub of West Africa, providing millions of opportunities for migrants each day. The place is called LAGOS.

Nigerian Youths

Many young Nigerians like me are often faced with the option of relocating permanently out of Nigeria because of the uncertainties we face on a daily basis.

Business - hard to scale through
Politics - so many bottlenecks and baba alayes
Social Project - No body wants to do charity

Chai. Things are really hard but must we give up....????

No, we shouldn't but continue to push beyond boundaries with a strong believe in ourselves and in this country, Nigeria.

In this country lies the greatest opportunity in our numbers, almost 200 million people carrying problems that need critical solutions.

Look within; Look around; Search their souls; Dig the deep well of the land's treasures and you shall find the value that will cause a mega turn around.

Don't do it alone. Find ways to collaborate for it is better to be a small part of a big thing than to be a big part of a small thing.

Brace up like me and succeed against all odds.

We can get Nigeria working again.

- David Lanre Messan 

The Fall of Naira

Hello Spotlight readers, it's no longer a news that the naira has lost an enormous amount of value in the international space. While many will argue its solely as a result of bad governance some people strongly believe it's as a result of not purchasing made in Nigeria products. Read the opinion below.⤵️

"The fall of the Naira did not just happen overnight When Naira was stronger was when we had

1. Peugeot Automobile Nigeria.
2. Volkswagen Nigeria.
3. Dunlop Nigeria LTD
4. Michellin, Nigeria
5. BATA.
6. LENNARDS.
7. Nigerian Airways.
8. Steel Rolling Mill, Osogbo.
9. Steel Rolling Mill, Ajaokuta
10. Arewa Textile Mill.
11. BEREC Battery.
12. ANAMCO
13. General Motors.
14. Kingsway.
15 A.G. Leventis
16 Bhojson's
17. IBM
18. IICC.
19. RANGERS FOOTBALL CLUB.
20. ETC

Free fall started when we abandoned
1. IICC for ARSENAL
2. RANGERS for MAN. U.
3. EYINMBA for LIVERPOOL.
4. NIGERIA AIRWAYS for BA
5. YANKARI for DISNEY LAND.
6. GURARA for ISRAEL.
7. IKOGOSI for UK .
8. PALM WINE for HENESSY.
9. AREWA for SWISS LACE.
10. ARIARIA for ITALIAN SHOES.
11. MAMA PUT for KFC
12. OJA OBA for SHOPRITE.

There is practically nothing on ground in Nigeria to attract the dollar. Naija brands are sponsoring foreign clubs.

A bottle of Henessy is 110k in Quilox, in V.I. The voice over of ARIK AIR advert was done by an English man.
And we are growing the  NAIRA!

Nigeria, being the 5th largest consumer of Japanese products in the world, do not have an Assembly Plant for Toyota.

We do not have assembly plants for Mercedes Benz, Hyundai, Honda, etc.

Despite the fast growth of broadcasting & ICT in Nigeria, we do not have assembly plants for any of the producers of all electronic appliances such as Samsung, Sony, Nokia, HP, Techno, etc.

Major software development contracts are warehoused from offshore.

Corporate Executives & politicians give more preference to foreign trainings, foreign medical services, foreign food items & foreign dresses.

With the growth in aviation, aircraft maintenance are done offshore.

Most fishing companies have been taken over by the Indian.

Chinese n Indians are leading farmers with GMO n biotechnology across d country while Nigerians are busy selling land.

Whom will u blame if foreigners are now the land owners after all you can't eat your cake n have it.
Hmmmm.....

*The cause of problems is in the Mirror check it out!! Don't look elsewhere, check the MIRROR*- *We are collectively CULPABLE !*

Please stop developing other economies at our detriment.

Let us begin to patronise local products and grow the NAIRA !

The time to start is now n now is never late._ 

*Please share this info until it gets to every Nigerian."

*DISCLAIMER*

THE LARGEST CRUISE SHIP( SYMPHONY OF THE SEAS) SETS SAIL

After three years of construction, the world's largest cruise ship just set sail from Barcelona, Spain, on its inaugural voyage to destinations around the Mediterranean. But the ship's record-breaking size isn't its only claim to fame. The Symphony of the Seas is home to the tallest waterslide at sea, the ocean's fastest Internet and more works of art than the Louvre has paintings.
"The most surprising and memorable thing for me was that first sight of the ship -- seeing how big and immense it is," Balwin Yeung, Royal Caribbean's director of sales and marketing in Hong Kong, tells CNN Travel.

FERRARI SET TO OBSTRUCT MERCEDES F1 DOMINATION

Ferrari's domination of Mercedes in Chinese GP qualifying is "the turning point" in the battle for supremacy in F1 2018 (Sky F1 pundit Damon Hill).

Sebastian Vettel set a new lap record of 1:31.095 to take his 52nd career pole - and Ferrari's first in Shanghai since 2004 - and pip team-mate Kimi Raikkonen by eight hundredths of a second.

Mercedes had previously taken every Chinese GP pole since 2012 but were over half a second behind the two Ferraris, with Valtteri Bottas third and Lewis Hamilton fourth.

One Stormy Night

One stormy night many years ago, an elderly man and his wife entered the lobby of a small hotel in Philadelphia. Trying to get out of the rain, the couple approached the front desk hoping to get some shelter for the night.

"Could you possibly give us a room here?" the husband asked.

The clerk, a friendly man with a winning smile, looked at the couple and explained that there were three conventions in town.

"All of our rooms are taken," the clerk said. "But I can't send a nice couple like you out into the rain at one o'clock in the morning. Would you perhaps be willing to sleep in my room? It's not exactly a suite, but it will be good enough to make you folks comfortable for the night."

When the couple declined, the young man pressed on. "Don't worry about me; I'll make out just fine," the clerk told them. So the couple agreed.

As he paid his bill the next morning, the elderly man said to the clerk, "You are the kind of manager who should be the boss of the best hotel in the United States. Maybe someday I'll build one for you." The clerk looked at them and smiled. The three of them had a good laugh. As they drove away, the elderly couple agreed that the helpful clerk was indeed exceptional, as finding people who are both friendly and helpful isn't easy.

Two years passed. The clerk had almost forgotten the incident when he received a letter from the old man. It recalled that stormy night and enclosed a round-trip ticket to New York, asking the young man to pay them a visit.The old man met him in New York, and led him to the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. He then pointed to a great new building there, a palace of reddish stone, with turrets and watchtowers thrusting up to the sky.

"That," said the older man, "is the hotel I have just built for you to manage."

"You must be joking," the young man said.

"I can assure you I am not," said the older man, a sly smile playing around his mouth.

The older man's name was William Waldorf Astor, and the magnificent structure was the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The young clerk who became its first manager was George C. Boldt.

This young clerk never foresaw the turn of events that would lead him to become the manager of one of the world's most glamorous hotels.